Matthew Casey was in the "wrong situation at the right time," when events in his life lead him to create Think Immigration, an online "marketplace of ideas" featuring news links, blogs and information on both sides of the border and illegal immigration debates.

"We feel like the discussion and the debate is very bogged down and so we write things that we hope will illicit people's passions and cause them to start a conversation," Casey said.

In 1999, Casey's family moved to Phoenix, Ariz. but Casey stayed in Raleigh, N.C. to finish school at North Carolina State University. After a semester, Casey decided to drop out.

"I didn't have anywhere to go and I could either come out here and admit defeat or figure something out," said Casey.

After asking a co-worker if he could stay with him, Casey went to live with ten people in one house, all of them undocumented immigrants.

"At that time North Carolina wasn't a place you think of when you think of immigrants, so these guys were big time trail blazers, they were very brave," Casey said.

After three months in the house and moving out with two of them for nine months, Casey was fluent in Spanish and very aware of immigration issues.

In 2003, Casey moved to Phoenix, Ariz.

"I knew I wanted to be involved in immigration and border issues, but I didn't really have a lot of direction…everybody I knew…was at a grassroots level," said Casey.

In Phoenix, Casey registered for writing courses at Paradise Valley Community College. He also soon met Mauro Venegas and Martin Arvizu and traveled a good deal with them in Sonora.

"Martin and I took a trip to Kino Bay …and when we were there it was the spring of 2006 and there were all these posters up for Ándres Manuel López Obrador and his campaign slogan was 'for the better of everybody, first the poor,' and we were just kind of blown away by this."

What started as a comment from Arvizu about wanting to be in Mexico City on election night to "see history," turned into a reality for Casey and Arvizu.

With the help of his father, Marc Casey who is the News Director at Channel 12 in Phoenix, they put together a package of story ideas. And after sending an email and flyer to every daily newspaper in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas, Inside Tucson Business took them up on the offer and at $500 for five stories signed a contract with them.

Judy Galbraith, Casey's teacher and mentor, convinced PVCC to loan them a laptop for the trip and the two were in business.

They covered the Mexico election and grassroots stories on their trip and saw López Obrador speak live while waiting for the controversial election results. Before the results came in, the two returned home and "life went back to normal," said Casey.

"We got hired by someone…someone was actually paying for this story. It felt like something we wanted to keep doing in our lives," Arvizu said.

Casey went back to school at PVCC, working for the school paper and freelancing on the side including covering a story about the MinuteMen which landed him on the front page of a Sunday edition after Gazette Newspapers bought the story.

Despite his travels and experiences, Casey came back wanting more.

"It dawned on me that I wanted to create a hybrid Web site on immigration semi-modeled after Drudge with news links and what not and semi-modeled after Huffington Post with blog posts, different bloggers and some original reporting."

With Arvizu and Venegas on board, they set out to create Think Immigration. Venegas contributed to the overall design while Casey and Arvizu took on the content including blogging and commentary on top immigration stories. But it was Ethan Deyoung who, according to Casey, "took us to the world" and made the Web site more accessible.

Casey is now a journalism student at the University of Arizona working to "finally" finish his degree. His classes are filled with students who are just starting journalism, but despite his experiences, traveling the world, landing on the front page and living with undocumented immigrants, he says he's learning a lot.

"One of the things that my involvement with immigrants has taught me is that you can do whatever you want if you're willing to work for it and I try to approach journalism in that same attitude."